Durgen Or, A Plain Satyr upon a Pompous Satyrist. Amicably Inscrib'd, by the Author, to those Worthy and Ingenious Gentlemen misrepresented in a late invective Poem, call'd, The Dunciad [by Edward Ward] |
 |
 | Durgen |  |
What Snake-hair'd Envy, with infernal Ire,
Could thy revengeful Muse of late inspire,
And move the angry Fantom to produce
The Dunciad, of such admirable use,
Wherein the Reader may, with pleasure see,
How Poverty joins hands with Poetry,
And be instructed, if untaught before,
How to despise true Merit when it's poor;
Which way to shake dead Authors by the Beard,
Worthies, when living, by the World rever'd;
And how, in Epick Satyr, to asperse
Their sacred and immortal Characters,
That from their mould'ring Reliques may be torn
The blooming Laurels by their Statues worn,
To crown his restless sacrilegious Head,
That wants to rend a Garland from the dead;
Conscious his own Deferts will never raise
A Wreath of Weeds, much less a Crown of Baies;
Among the same Heroicks may be found
New methods of defence, and how to wound;
With whom to quarrel, when to mischief bent,
How to push home, and when to make a feint;
But, above all, he does at large disclose
The useful Art of turning Friends to Foes,
By representing, in false magick Glasses,
Wits as dull Fools, and Scholars as meer Asses;
Then craftily extenuates the Offence,
By prefatory Mendaciloquence;
A shift too mean for Men of Parts to use,
And therefore far beneath an Epick Muse:
But Poets that in calumny delight,
Must wrong the Truth as surely as they write,
Then quote Authorities, perhaps unknown,
And by old Errors justify their own.
Could thy revengeful Muse of late inspire,
And move the angry Fantom to produce
The Dunciad, of such admirable use,
Wherein the Reader may, with pleasure see,
How Poverty joins hands with Poetry,
And be instructed, if untaught before,
How to despise true Merit when it's poor;
Which way to shake dead Authors by the Beard,
Worthies, when living, by the World rever'd;
And how, in Epick Satyr, to asperse
Their sacred and immortal Characters,
That from their mould'ring Reliques may be torn
The blooming Laurels by their Statues worn,
To crown his restless sacrilegious Head,
That wants to rend a Garland from the dead;
40
A Wreath of Weeds, much less a Crown of Baies;
Among the same Heroicks may be found
New methods of defence, and how to wound;
With whom to quarrel, when to mischief bent,
How to push home, and when to make a feint;
But, above all, he does at large disclose
The useful Art of turning Friends to Foes,
By representing, in false magick Glasses,
Wits as dull Fools, and Scholars as meer Asses;
Then craftily extenuates the Offence,
By prefatory Mendaciloquence;
A shift too mean for Men of Parts to use,
And therefore far beneath an Epick Muse:
But Poets that in calumny delight,
Must wrong the Truth as surely as they write,
Then quote Authorities, perhaps unknown,
And by old Errors justify their own.
| Durgen | |